"Due to change of weather, we have been unable to harvest enough maize in our region. Since we are peasant farmers, we rely on maize to fend for our family. We have 0.5 acre of land which we have planted maize hoping to get good harvest (of around 3 bags of maize) this year. Change of weather has been the greatest hardship we have faced in life."

"Since I am a house wife, I have been aspiring to run a shop business to keep me busy and to supplement what my husband gets as a mason. My husband gets around 40 USD a month working as a mason which is not enough to fend for the entire family. I am planning to use 300 USD of the first transfer to build and equip the shop with necessary goods I intend to sell. Therefore, receiving this money mean I will be able to keep myself busy and at the same time own a business."

"My phone rang at around at around 5:40 am, upon checking it was a message from mobile money notifying me that I had receive money in my account. I became very happy to get such a large sum of money."

"My life is currently different than how it would have been if I never received the transfer because I have been able to build a house for my family. The kitchen we were previously using was in bad condition. It was always leaking during the rainy season and cooking our meals was difficult as one would get rained on. Also, my two sons would not have been able to join high school had it not have been for GiveDirectly. I depend on selling vegetables to raise school fees for my children and the income I usually get is always not enough to pay school fees and buy our daily needs."

"My life is different than it would have been if I never received the transfer in that I have bought a dairy cow. I used to buy milk and it was so costly for me."

"We have not had a maize harvest for four years now.This has mostly been caused by prolonged droughts and partly by a certain strange maize crop disease.Because of this,we have had to set aside some money which would have otherwise been put back into business to buy maize for the family.This has since stagnated my business"

"The moment when I received my money, I became very happy because my plan to construct a permanent house was going to be attained."

"I expect my life to change in the next four months in that I will have bought a dairy cow from the savings. This will enable me to cut the cost of buying milk daily."

"In the next six months, I would have bought a heifer to add to the ones which I have presently. Having a heifer would mean that in a few months the animal will ready for service and after it calves down I will have double milk production from our farm which means we will be earning more income through the sale of milk."

"My life is different than it would have been if I never received the transfer school fees buidling hao"